VIDEO: 'Breakthrough' at eurozone summit

Economists and non-euro EU leaders cheered Friday's eurozone summit deal as a surprise "breakthrough" in efforts to preserve a stable currency, yet crucial details still need to be filled in.With market expectations low ahead of the European Union summit, a deal that bolstered confidence in the euro was wrenched after all-night talks between eurozone leaders, bringing swift relief to crisis-hit Italy and Spain.

LONDON — Heavily indebted eurozone nations such as Italy and Portugal could come under pressure to put their bullion reserves to work as a result of plans for Cyprus to sell gold to meet its financing needs. A European Commission assessment of what Cyprus needs to do as part of its European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout showed Cyprus is expected to sell in excess gold reserves to raise around 400-million euros (US$523-million).

Eurozone leaders and private creditors agreed to give Greece a new 159-billion-euro bailout, risking a potential default to prevent the debt crisis from spreading worldwide.The eurozone and the International Monetary Fund will provide 109 billion euros while banks will share the pain with 50 billion euros, a total equivalent to $229 billion, under the deal agreed at an emergency summit late Thursday."We have shown that we will not waver in the defence of our monetary union and our common currency," said European Union president Herman Van Rompuy.

Eurozone leaders entered a critical summit on Thursday in the hope of finding a solution to reducing Greece's debt mountain amid nervous markets. French and German leaders agreed the night before to a common plan for the meeting.

The European Union is delaying a summit by almost a week to October 23 to give leaders more time to polish their response to the eurozone debt crisis, the EU's president said on Monday.The summit was originally scheduled to take place over two days in Brussels on October 17-18, but the eurozone has yet to implement a Greek rescue package agreed in July and officials are now working on plans to shore up banks.